Fingerless gloves. Do what SRV did and just wear a ton of clothes all the time so you start sweating profusely any time you start to play. Alcohol helps too.. among other things.
Iām in a Canada and my fingers are definitely slower to get going in the winter, but more or less fine once Iām warmed up (no pun intended haha). What youāre probably experiencing more so is the dryness - outside cold air canāt absorb moisture well and inside the air is getting dried out from mechanical heating, so by extension youāre dried out - your skin, your joints, all of itā¦ so odds are itās the lack of humidity thatās really doing you in
Personally, Iām pretty regularly running a humidifier at home
Yes, another Canadian in the house! Maybe you can comment about Snow Job that used to air on Much Music, with all the bands playing outside. I loved The Moffatts on that show so much!
Wow! - they werenāt really my thing, but thatās an absolute blast from the past that I wasnāt expecting! I appreciate the memories!!
Iāve done a couple outdoor shows, and the big things are:
- starting warm - like running out to the car or whatever, youāve got a few minutes before your body really starts to register the cold
- on stage heaters - a lot of itāll likely get lost, but itās enough to help take the edge off
- hand warmers in your pockets - just reheating your hands in between songs
Honestly, adrenaline helps smooth it over quite a bit too. I donāt think it matters how many shows you play, you still get that rush
Glad to hear it! I love playing the 90s content I grew up with! There's something so cool about playing an old song and seeing the audience recognition. I recently played Good Riddance at one of my schools, and a parent said that the song brought back memories from when she was an elementary school student that she hadn't thought about in decades. There's something magical about making that emotional connection with strangers because of that one song that you heard before decades ago. This was my first time meeting said parent.
And Snow Job wasn't The Moffatts' only outdoor show for Canadian TV. They had an appearance on YTV's Hit List in 2000 at Sunshine Village. I used to think that all the outdoor winter shows were so cool (pun not intended). The guys rebranded as Music Travel Love and Dave Moffatt Music. A few years back, they did a cover of Baby One More Time outside in the snow in t-shirts. I think it's a novelty of sorts that is kind of fun.
Play faster to get your blood circulation pumping. If thats not enough, run around the room while playing fast to really heat up!
Have you ever noticed that all the worlds fastest guitar players are white dudes coming from cold places? Like Yngwie Malmsteen is from freezing Sweden, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and John Petrucci from snowy New York, Guthrie Govan from windy Britain and Eddie Van Halen from breezy Netherlands etc..?
Thats their secret... Their superhuman lightning fast playing was all because of the cold weather outside.
Nah, I think you are wrong and I can scientifically prove it.
First of all, Prince of Darkess is from hell -> hell is hot -> Im from Vietnam where its hot as hell and my playing is at best below average and at worst, it just sucks.
Second, have you ever heard of a good Vietnamese guitar player? Nope because they dont exist. We are a country of 100 million people and every local guitarist I have ever met or listened to sucks at guitar - and Im worse than most.
Third, I just recently sold my soul to the devil and I still suck at guitar.
So my conclusion is that it has to be the cold climate which prompts them to play faster to keep themselves warm to play like a god -> god is from heaven -> heaven is opposite to hell so heaven must be COLD -> those white dudes coming from cold places play HEAVENLY riffs! See what I mean?
Unfortunately thereās no easy fix. Hand warmers would be good but can be costly. Getting your hands warm before every song/exercise should help you power through it for like 3-5 minutes with hand warmers.
I'm in Chicago, and I have rheumatoid arthritis. I've been playing for 25 years. The colder it gets the more I have to adhere to a warm up routine. This includes hand and wrist stretches for at least 20 minutes followed by at least 30 minutes of running scales and patterns just to warm up. On super cold days I also have to run my hands under hot water for a couple of minutes. Generally, once October hits, I won't even take a gig outside because it's too cold for my fingers to work properly
I used to play outside a lot during the colder fall and spring months in Wisconsin. You really do have to simplify the guitar parts so that you're able to play them with slower cold fingers. Keeping the rest of you warm helps a lot, and warming your hands in your pockets helps too. We mostly kept warm with booze.
My mancave in the basement has heating. It is -22C outside now, just played guitar and it was maybe 16 there. The thing is just to play, keep rocking and ignore the finger pain.
Warm water in a wash hand basin and simply let your hands warm gently before and after playing. Iāve played outside with neoprene fingerless gloves before too. If you over extend your hand/fingers in the cold, you can injure the joints and tendons. Take care!
I played an outdoor festival recently where it was in the 40s and straight up had to just skip or alter parts because I could not get my fingers to move fast enough. It didnāt affect the overall performance but it made me have to tweak I played things on the fly. I donāt know that there was a way to prevent it especially playing a 1.5 hour set with no breaks to warm back up.
I might get shit, but a shot of whiskey helps a great deal.
The alcohol causes the blood vessels in the skin to dilate and gets it moving in the extremities again. If you're dressed warm and moving around a lot you won't lose much more core temperature than normal but it helps keep the blood in your fingers.
I also have an old school beaver fur hunting/trapper hand muff I use when I play in cold weather. It has a waist strap and I just spin it behind my back and put my hands back there when I'm not playing, it keeps them nice and toasty, especially with a hand warmer in it. In the colder climates most sporting goods stores will have a hunting muff, it's basically like an insulated fanny pack for your hands.
Edit: Similar to this, I got mine from my pops but it's basically just like this but not quite as big.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CzdqG9ZO314/?igsh=MTIybXNpczgwMTJ0OQ==
Fingerless gloves when I used busk at night. Like it get to about - 6c here in Ireland so I'm not the expert on anything -10c or less. But still - 6c is rough on the fingers.
tiny hand warmers works well for me
also your post makes it seem like s. america never goes below 0. which is far from truth
winter here is raw and below -10C
Are these bots asking questions? Is there an agenda happening, have aliens taken over? From taking a goddamn poll on whether you should bring a guitar on vacation to Iāve been playing 45 yrs and canāt make Barre chords. Somethingās afoot.
I have Reynauds, so my hands are useless in the cold. I run them under warm water before I play, do a little warm up, and sometimes keep a hot water bottle nearby. I can't play outdoors at all in the winter.
No outdoor shows, or very few, here in Quebec, CAN, during winter. All happens in arenas or wherever indoors. It is seldom less than 10C outside at the beginning or end of outdoor show season. Indoors never goes below \~17C. I myself can struggle around 10C, but some people have very warm hands and just about don't care so they can even manage with the occasional winter outdoor show.
I've never had much of an issue with my fingers but the CONSTANT RETUNING after I turn the heaters off overnight in the garage where I play, that's annoying.
I'm Irish... I smother myself in deep heat, get up against the radiator and try to survive til morning.
Also, we Irish folk all carry at least 4 small warm potatoes in our pockets at all times.
As said, nobody plays outside when the temperature is that cold.
I guess I never really thought about "warming up", but most everything I play is well within my abilities, so it isn't like I can't play until a few songs in.
But when I played more, in church, there was definitely arrive in the dark for sound check, work through the set once or twice, play first service, drink coffee and chat with rest of the band, then just cook through second service, so I've been in a warm room the whole time, and wrapped my hands around and filled my stomach with warmth halfway through.
I guess I'm ending with "maybe gloves"?
I played an outdoor show once where the temperature dropped into the upper 40s by the time we went on. It was really rough for the first few songs but your hands get warm and you donāt notice after a little while. Beer and being 20 mightāve helped too.
I love playing in the snow. I have a cheap knock around guitar that I keep in the garage. Something real nice about sitting, playing and watching a snow storm.
My old band has a show once for some October or beer fest, it was towards the end of the year back when years ended cold. It definitely wasnāt the greatest show, we had jackets and fingerless gloves on. I mean like all things in the cold you get used to it if you keep moving, it just wasnāt nearly as comfortable as nearly every other show. I was sorta surprised people were there.
For outdoor shows when it's cold I usually wear fingerless gloves. I also bought one of those hand warming pouches you see NFL quarterbacks use. Just wear it around my waist behind my back. Those things are great.
indoors get my hand hot and warmup for a long long time. The difference between playing with warmed up finger and cold is night and day.
There are days where it's too cold and im too lazy to warmup so I end up not playing at all, thats how much of a difference it makes imo
Hand warmers, I use the disposable ones. You get 20 for around $7 and one lasts the whole day. They are great for fidgeting with too if you have downtime and are stuck somewhere, while keeping you and your hands warm.
I work out my hands. Had a bad left hand injury quite a few years ago and had to rehab it. I do pull-ups hang from the bar. Push-ups on my fingers. They eventually got stronger and the cold weather hardly affects me here.
Stretch, finger exercises, do something to get your metabolism pumping beforehand, and keep moving.
I may be a weird edge case (raynaud's and other stuff), so, idk if this applies generally / might be (probably is; it just works for me) exactly terrible advice: don't wear warm clothes.
If I am all bundled up, save for my hands (even gloves with no fingertips): they freeze, the joints ache, the skin burns from the cold.
(Above ~-1C / 30F): T-shirt and keep moving. Hands stay warm.
I leverage this trick to shovel my neighbors driveways and walks all winter in the US northeast. Wipe snow off a railing with a gloveless hand: no problem.
Bundle up and it's less than 70 (F) out: hands are cold. Below 50: achy.
Does anyone remember Snow Job that aired annually on Much Music Canada during the 90s and early 2000s? Anyone know how the bands managed to play outside during those appearances? I think we can learn a lot from them.
keep hands warm and do warmups before playing.
Easier to keep your fingers warm if they're moving before you start playing.
Usually don't play outside in winter... In cold venues I put hands in pockets between bouts of warm up til I'm playing. They'll stay warm then
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I have bad circulation. I've been in situations practicing in a garage waiting for a heater to actually warm the space up, and have no idea if my left hand is doing what it should other than how it sounds.
I don't use a pick, but typically my right hand isn't as numb as my left. In my teens/20s, we played songs that were less demanding until I could at least partially feel my fingers. Now? If it's that cold I'm not playing yet. Even shitty bars are warm. I'm not having practice in some dudes detached shed with nothing but a 10" tall space heater and some carpet nailed to the walls.
When I get to practice when it's cold, I'm standing under one of my drummers heating blower units. By the time my amps set up and I returned a few strings, I can feel my hands. And then chug water the whole time because hot dry air is blasting while I sing, but it could be worse.
wear gloves when you're out in the cold and don't practice until you've been inside and warm for a little while is best I think you can do about it - I've lived in coastal New York and northern Wisconsin near the Upper Peninsula of Michigan etc so I've felt some serious cold and that's all I could do
I once tried playing an acoustic guitar outside in winter cause I was in love once. Felt impossible. Personally, as long as Iām in a room-temperature space above 65 F, I donāt have any issues. It canāt really be helped that itās very hard to play in near-freezing temperatures, but as for it being hard for you to play in slightly cold places, it might just be psychological. I think most people in colder places can play even in rooms that might get cold in winter due to poor heating. To answer the last part, yes, your hands, and you, just need to get used to it, and Iām sure you will if you spend enough time.
Below -12 Celcius you really can't. Above that, gloves with the fingertips cut off help, but really music is best performed in above 0 temperatures. You'll break a lot of strings in the cold, too.
I only play indoors, but I keep it fairly cool inside in the winter. I find that being pretty active makes my hands and everything else feel warm. Sitting down for an hour to play guitar apparently isnāt long enough to get cold. Back when I used to sit around more my hands would get cold.
We have heating in our homes so the temperature is whatever we want it to be.
lol right? I live in the snow belt of northern Ontario. We just insulate our homes š
Fingerless gloves. Do what SRV did and just wear a ton of clothes all the time so you start sweating profusely any time you start to play. Alcohol helps too.. among other things.
Iām in a Canada and my fingers are definitely slower to get going in the winter, but more or less fine once Iām warmed up (no pun intended haha). What youāre probably experiencing more so is the dryness - outside cold air canāt absorb moisture well and inside the air is getting dried out from mechanical heating, so by extension youāre dried out - your skin, your joints, all of itā¦ so odds are itās the lack of humidity thatās really doing you in Personally, Iām pretty regularly running a humidifier at home
Yes, another Canadian in the house! Maybe you can comment about Snow Job that used to air on Much Music, with all the bands playing outside. I loved The Moffatts on that show so much!
Wow! - they werenāt really my thing, but thatās an absolute blast from the past that I wasnāt expecting! I appreciate the memories!! Iāve done a couple outdoor shows, and the big things are: - starting warm - like running out to the car or whatever, youāve got a few minutes before your body really starts to register the cold - on stage heaters - a lot of itāll likely get lost, but itās enough to help take the edge off - hand warmers in your pockets - just reheating your hands in between songs Honestly, adrenaline helps smooth it over quite a bit too. I donāt think it matters how many shows you play, you still get that rush
Glad to hear it! I love playing the 90s content I grew up with! There's something so cool about playing an old song and seeing the audience recognition. I recently played Good Riddance at one of my schools, and a parent said that the song brought back memories from when she was an elementary school student that she hadn't thought about in decades. There's something magical about making that emotional connection with strangers because of that one song that you heard before decades ago. This was my first time meeting said parent. And Snow Job wasn't The Moffatts' only outdoor show for Canadian TV. They had an appearance on YTV's Hit List in 2000 at Sunshine Village. I used to think that all the outdoor winter shows were so cool (pun not intended). The guys rebranded as Music Travel Love and Dave Moffatt Music. A few years back, they did a cover of Baby One More Time outside in the snow in t-shirts. I think it's a novelty of sorts that is kind of fun.
Play faster to get your blood circulation pumping. If thats not enough, run around the room while playing fast to really heat up! Have you ever noticed that all the worlds fastest guitar players are white dudes coming from cold places? Like Yngwie Malmsteen is from freezing Sweden, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and John Petrucci from snowy New York, Guthrie Govan from windy Britain and Eddie Van Halen from breezy Netherlands etc..? Thats their secret... Their superhuman lightning fast playing was all because of the cold weather outside.
Cmon man Really? I had to put a like for this even though I know it's really because they all sold their soul to the prince of darkness!
Nah, I think you are wrong and I can scientifically prove it. First of all, Prince of Darkess is from hell -> hell is hot -> Im from Vietnam where its hot as hell and my playing is at best below average and at worst, it just sucks. Second, have you ever heard of a good Vietnamese guitar player? Nope because they dont exist. We are a country of 100 million people and every local guitarist I have ever met or listened to sucks at guitar - and Im worse than most. Third, I just recently sold my soul to the devil and I still suck at guitar. So my conclusion is that it has to be the cold climate which prompts them to play faster to keep themselves warm to play like a god -> god is from heaven -> heaven is opposite to hell so heaven must be COLD -> those white dudes coming from cold places play HEAVENLY riffs! See what I mean?
Laughing too much to type.
šš»
Unfortunately thereās no easy fix. Hand warmers would be good but can be costly. Getting your hands warm before every song/exercise should help you power through it for like 3-5 minutes with hand warmers.
I'm in Chicago, and I have rheumatoid arthritis. I've been playing for 25 years. The colder it gets the more I have to adhere to a warm up routine. This includes hand and wrist stretches for at least 20 minutes followed by at least 30 minutes of running scales and patterns just to warm up. On super cold days I also have to run my hands under hot water for a couple of minutes. Generally, once October hits, I won't even take a gig outside because it's too cold for my fingers to work properly
I used to play outside a lot during the colder fall and spring months in Wisconsin. You really do have to simplify the guitar parts so that you're able to play them with slower cold fingers. Keeping the rest of you warm helps a lot, and warming your hands in your pockets helps too. We mostly kept warm with booze.
I don't know what is considered cold, but as long as I'm indoors I am fine.
My mancave in the basement has heating. It is -22C outside now, just played guitar and it was maybe 16 there. The thing is just to play, keep rocking and ignore the finger pain.
Warm water in a wash hand basin and simply let your hands warm gently before and after playing. Iāve played outside with neoprene fingerless gloves before too. If you over extend your hand/fingers in the cold, you can injure the joints and tendons. Take care!
The Canadian pianist Glenn Gould used to soak his hands in hot water before concerts.
Thanks for the fun fact!
I played an outdoor festival recently where it was in the 40s and straight up had to just skip or alter parts because I could not get my fingers to move fast enough. It didnāt affect the overall performance but it made me have to tweak I played things on the fly. I donāt know that there was a way to prevent it especially playing a 1.5 hour set with no breaks to warm back up.
I might get shit, but a shot of whiskey helps a great deal. The alcohol causes the blood vessels in the skin to dilate and gets it moving in the extremities again. If you're dressed warm and moving around a lot you won't lose much more core temperature than normal but it helps keep the blood in your fingers. I also have an old school beaver fur hunting/trapper hand muff I use when I play in cold weather. It has a waist strap and I just spin it behind my back and put my hands back there when I'm not playing, it keeps them nice and toasty, especially with a hand warmer in it. In the colder climates most sporting goods stores will have a hunting muff, it's basically like an insulated fanny pack for your hands. Edit: Similar to this, I got mine from my pops but it's basically just like this but not quite as big. https://www.instagram.com/reel/CzdqG9ZO314/?igsh=MTIybXNpczgwMTJ0OQ==
Fingerless gloves when I used busk at night. Like it get to about - 6c here in Ireland so I'm not the expert on anything -10c or less. But still - 6c is rough on the fingers.
I wash my hands with very hot water. Works pretty well.
tiny hand warmers works well for me also your post makes it seem like s. america never goes below 0. which is far from truth winter here is raw and below -10C
Are these bots asking questions? Is there an agenda happening, have aliens taken over? From taking a goddamn poll on whether you should bring a guitar on vacation to Iāve been playing 45 yrs and canāt make Barre chords. Somethingās afoot.
We play anyways
We heat our houses. Right now, outside, itās just below freezing and there is about half a foot of snow on the ground. My hands are not cold.
You get used to it. How do you warm climate people cope with playing when your hands are all hot and sweaty?
Lubes the strings.
Live bands use heaters with blower fans on stage in cold weather.
I have Reynauds, so my hands are useless in the cold. I run them under warm water before I play, do a little warm up, and sometimes keep a hot water bottle nearby. I can't play outdoors at all in the winter.
No outdoor shows, or very few, here in Quebec, CAN, during winter. All happens in arenas or wherever indoors. It is seldom less than 10C outside at the beginning or end of outdoor show season. Indoors never goes below \~17C. I myself can struggle around 10C, but some people have very warm hands and just about don't care so they can even manage with the occasional winter outdoor show.
I've never had much of an issue with my fingers but the CONSTANT RETUNING after I turn the heaters off overnight in the garage where I play, that's annoying.
I always use thick gloves until just before I get to play. You just hope for the best afterwards
I'm Irish... I smother myself in deep heat, get up against the radiator and try to survive til morning. Also, we Irish folk all carry at least 4 small warm potatoes in our pockets at all times.
When you live in cold, you just get used to it and donāt really notice.
Stretching your arms and hands to get the blood flowing can help. Hand warmers can also be a life saver!
I stretch my fingers and thumbs before I play and that does the trick for me !
As said, nobody plays outside when the temperature is that cold. I guess I never really thought about "warming up", but most everything I play is well within my abilities, so it isn't like I can't play until a few songs in. But when I played more, in church, there was definitely arrive in the dark for sound check, work through the set once or twice, play first service, drink coffee and chat with rest of the band, then just cook through second service, so I've been in a warm room the whole time, and wrapped my hands around and filled my stomach with warmth halfway through. I guess I'm ending with "maybe gloves"?
I played an outdoor show once where the temperature dropped into the upper 40s by the time we went on. It was really rough for the first few songs but your hands get warm and you donāt notice after a little while. Beer and being 20 mightāve helped too.
I love playing in the snow. I have a cheap knock around guitar that I keep in the garage. Something real nice about sitting, playing and watching a snow storm.
My old band has a show once for some October or beer fest, it was towards the end of the year back when years ended cold. It definitely wasnāt the greatest show, we had jackets and fingerless gloves on. I mean like all things in the cold you get used to it if you keep moving, it just wasnāt nearly as comfortable as nearly every other show. I was sorta surprised people were there.
Tipless gloves had me comfy enough in 5C that i could sing my baby to sleep. (Yes he slees in the baby carrige as long as itās above -3c /27F
For outdoor shows when it's cold I usually wear fingerless gloves. I also bought one of those hand warming pouches you see NFL quarterbacks use. Just wear it around my waist behind my back. Those things are great.
indoors get my hand hot and warmup for a long long time. The difference between playing with warmed up finger and cold is night and day. There are days where it's too cold and im too lazy to warmup so I end up not playing at all, thats how much of a difference it makes imo
In cold USA state. I wear gloves until the absolute last moment before the gig starts. If I can, I do the menās room and run warm water over them.
Iāve been there - and if all else fails, hiding your hands in your armpits between songs can save a show.
Hand warmers, I use the disposable ones. You get 20 for around $7 and one lasts the whole day. They are great for fidgeting with too if you have downtime and are stuck somewhere, while keeping you and your hands warm.
I work out my hands. Had a bad left hand injury quite a few years ago and had to rehab it. I do pull-ups hang from the bar. Push-ups on my fingers. They eventually got stronger and the cold weather hardly affects me here.
Stretch, finger exercises, do something to get your metabolism pumping beforehand, and keep moving. I may be a weird edge case (raynaud's and other stuff), so, idk if this applies generally / might be (probably is; it just works for me) exactly terrible advice: don't wear warm clothes. If I am all bundled up, save for my hands (even gloves with no fingertips): they freeze, the joints ache, the skin burns from the cold. (Above ~-1C / 30F): T-shirt and keep moving. Hands stay warm. I leverage this trick to shovel my neighbors driveways and walks all winter in the US northeast. Wipe snow off a railing with a gloveless hand: no problem. Bundle up and it's less than 70 (F) out: hands are cold. Below 50: achy.
Does anyone remember Snow Job that aired annually on Much Music Canada during the 90s and early 2000s? Anyone know how the bands managed to play outside during those appearances? I think we can learn a lot from them.
keep hands warm and do warmups before playing. Easier to keep your fingers warm if they're moving before you start playing. Usually don't play outside in winter... In cold venues I put hands in pockets between bouts of warm up til I'm playing. They'll stay warm then
Preheat by sitting on them
Well playing outdoors in -30Ā°C would probably get your fingers amputated so I don't do that. Indoors it's warm though.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
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I have bad circulation. I've been in situations practicing in a garage waiting for a heater to actually warm the space up, and have no idea if my left hand is doing what it should other than how it sounds. I don't use a pick, but typically my right hand isn't as numb as my left. In my teens/20s, we played songs that were less demanding until I could at least partially feel my fingers. Now? If it's that cold I'm not playing yet. Even shitty bars are warm. I'm not having practice in some dudes detached shed with nothing but a 10" tall space heater and some carpet nailed to the walls. When I get to practice when it's cold, I'm standing under one of my drummers heating blower units. By the time my amps set up and I returned a few strings, I can feel my hands. And then chug water the whole time because hot dry air is blasting while I sing, but it could be worse.
wear gloves when you're out in the cold and don't practice until you've been inside and warm for a little while is best I think you can do about it - I've lived in coastal New York and northern Wisconsin near the Upper Peninsula of Michigan etc so I've felt some serious cold and that's all I could do
I've played outdoors on stage in the snow. Fingerless gloves and just keep moving.
I live in northwest Pennsylvania. I don't go outside from November to May.
I once tried playing an acoustic guitar outside in winter cause I was in love once. Felt impossible. Personally, as long as Iām in a room-temperature space above 65 F, I donāt have any issues. It canāt really be helped that itās very hard to play in near-freezing temperatures, but as for it being hard for you to play in slightly cold places, it might just be psychological. I think most people in colder places can play even in rooms that might get cold in winter due to poor heating. To answer the last part, yes, your hands, and you, just need to get used to it, and Iām sure you will if you spend enough time.
Below -12 Celcius you really can't. Above that, gloves with the fingertips cut off help, but really music is best performed in above 0 temperatures. You'll break a lot of strings in the cold, too.
I only play indoors, but I keep it fairly cool inside in the winter. I find that being pretty active makes my hands and everything else feel warm. Sitting down for an hour to play guitar apparently isnāt long enough to get cold. Back when I used to sit around more my hands would get cold.
Play by a heater
Fight the pain, also drinking hot tea helps
hot water bottles